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Before I can advance two feet, he snatches my wrist and tugs me back. “I can’t do this alone.”
“Do what?” I demand.
He drags me closer, placing me in front of him. His warm breath fans my hair as he leans down to my ear and I shiver. “Everything I ever swore to you… I’m making it happen.”
“A little too late, don’t you think?” I hiss, trying to shrug out of his hold.
“Better late than never.” He places the hilt of his knife in my palm, then wraps his big hand around mine and begins to scratch at the stone he stabbed a moment ago.
When we’re done, he releases me, but I don’t move. I can’t even look away.
“My parents’ names are etched into a rock at the church. Ours will be too,” he told me once. “And when they are, it will mean that we will be together forever. It will mean nothing can ever take you from me.”
“You promise?” I asked and snuggled into his chest.
“I promise.”
It took five years to fulfill that promise, but here it is.
I touch the stone, trailing my fingers over the fresh carving.
Rowan KaneandLouisa Duran.
9
LOUISA
Rowan refuses to tell me where we’re headed, so I stare out the window in silence. Even when he grabs my hand and places it beneath his on the gear shift, I don’t look. Instead, I pretend the contact of his skin doesn’t burn me so thoroughly, I might as well be touching a hot iron.
God damn Rowan. I’m so completely aware of not only his hand on mine, but of everything about him. His scent, his breathing, the sound his clothes make when he shifts in his seat. It’s all I can do not to tear myself from his hold, open the car door, and jump. The only thing that stops me is the idea of ending up a pancake.
“Wait, where are we?” I sit up as I suddenly recognize an old Victorian house on a corner, its unusual roofline resulting from illegal additions bringing back memories.
“The North End.”
I turn to him, my heart pounding in my chest. “We’re going to your old studio?”
“Seems fitting, don’t you think?” He glances my way. “It’s where you gave yourself to me the first time. Where you promised to be mine forever.”
He pulls into a spot in front of the brown building that looks exactly the same as I remember. Same green-and-white-striped awning over the narrow entrance door tucked between a Greek restaurant and an Italian market.
Rowan scans the street carefully before exiting the car. He then looks behind us and makes a gesture.
I spin in my seat, expecting to see the caravan of guards I’m accustomed to trailing us, but there’s nothing.
“You have someone out there, don’t you?” I ask.
“Always.” He comes around to my side of the vehicle and opens the door.
I take the hand he extends to me, mostly because it’s difficult to move in this dress, let alone get out of a small space, and I really don’t want to put on a show.
The moment I’m out, I too scan the area. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, just people milling around, hanging out on the stoops to their buildings. A few do stare my way, some smiling and waving. Someone even yells, “Congratulations!”
However, there are no men lurking in corners or spying on us from windows or rooftops. Shame. I’d hoped there would be. Hoped even more they would be my father’s men out searching for me.
But Rowan has been one step ahead the entire time. While I’m positive my father is still out raking the city, he would have expanded beyond the perimeter of his territory by now. He’d have had no reason to suspect we’d be in that tiny church so close to him, or that Rowan has a place in this building. He’d have no way of knowing it’s even on to Rowan at all.
Shaking my head in disgust over my situation, I follow Rowan through the entrance and up a wooden staircase so narrow, his shoulders graze the walls. Or maybe he’s just that broad.
